Perry Altermatt didn’t shelter his daughters from the rigors of farming, but neither Kaycee nor Miranda had planted corn or driven a combine at the time their father passed.

Now 5’2” Kaycee maneuvers a massive John Deere harvester through 12 rows of corn at a time. She looks to her left as her younger sister Miranda pulls up in a tractor pulling a grain cart to offload the shelled corn.

“Terrifying,” is the word Kaycee uses to describe her first time driving the combine.

Yet Miranda, also looking back, sums up the feelings of both siblings. “If we didn't take it over then who would?"

“I’m sure we’re stronger than we ever thought we could be and do more than we ever thought we could,” says Kaycee, who had just completed her bachelor's degree, when fate interrupted her plans to become a CPA.

Miranda had been pursing an associate degree in agriculture business, but like her sister, turned her attention to her family and the farm.

After Perry's death other farmers began speculating that the Altermatt farm would soon be up for sale or rent.

Without Kaycee and Miranda "it would have been the end," says their grandpa. "I would say I’m very proud."

When darkness fell on a third generation farm, the women of the fourth lit the way.